Abstract/Summary

This brief review provides an Earth Science perspective on present climate change (global warming) using evidence from past ice ages with details from the Quaternary ice age. It places the present (Quaternary) ice age in the context of Earth history and outlines possible causes of ice ages and the scale and style of ice age climate. Milankovitch climate forcing is described and explained as the cause of relatively predictable climatic variations within an ice age (and at other times), and this is followed by an outline of the factors likely to be responsible for short and rapid sub-Milankovitch climate variations that are superimposed on the predictable changes. Finally the anomalous, relatively constant climate of the last 11.5 ka (Holocene) is highlighted and explained in terms of human input of greenhouse gasses into the Earth's atmosphere.